It will provide some benefit but whether the temperature drop across the intercooler will more than make up for the boost drop across it is still an open question. Also any time you can pack more air into the cylinder you will extract more power from the same amount of fuel burned. (proof can be found here and yes the same principle applies to a diesel http://courses.washington.edu/me341/oct22v2.htm ) I did some calculations once, an intercooler alone would get you 2 or 3 HP. True, you can get 10 to 30 HP more power out by burning more fuel but that doesn't mean that there is no gain by adding an intercooler alone.

I must state turbo lag does affect off the line performance. This is because boost helps build boost. Also boost turns up the fuel via the ALDA which also builds boost further. Whether the loss in off the line performance in trade for more power once boost has been built is inconsequential is a matter of opinion.

The fan idea might help but it too would be far from ideal being behind the radiator. If I was doing it I would weld a water jacket around it and turn it into an Air/Water intercooler (ala Brandon314159 ).

I will agree with you and say he did do a nice job though.

Edit: If you want to keep turbo lag down you need to keep the volume of the piping on the cold side of the intercooler down. It takes more cold air to pressurize a given volume than it does with hot air.

I'm wondering if all that hot air from the intercooler is now going to get sucked right into the K&N filter. hmmmm

If I had a second hood, I'd experiment it a hood scoop or two -or maybe a scoop and whatever you call a scoop rotated 180° for suction/exhaust. - Something to get the air moving through the cooler, and for cool air to get to the intake.

Looks nicer than I expected :)

I did buy a second hood, but i'm trying to figure out how to get air to go throught the hood (hood scoop, louvers, some kind for grill) without destroying the look of the car... i mean it is a mercedes.

in a dream world i would have the skills to cut in a vent in the fender like on a 190D 2.5T

my dream for venting my intercooler. (photoshop)

Looks good. That is where I am mounting my air/water IC. I have just the fan you need for that too...it came with the honda goldwing radiator that I am using for my intercooler set up, however since my intercooler radiator is front mounted I have no use for the fan. You can have the fan for the cost of shipping. PM me if you are interested.

That will work well for the intercooler exhaust as it's in a negative pressure area. Where are you going to put the intercooler inlet?

remember this is all in the design phase... but I was thinking about taking some 4 inch pips and making a long scoop that would mount in the bumper, not to low because I don't want to hit it, but if I do it would only be pipe I made and not an intercooler.

I’d attach a section of flexible vent tubing (like used in old 'ram air' systems) and put that into a shroud on the bottom/engine side of the intercooler.

Remember this is a dream world I’m living in. I think it would all work great and look nice, but I’m still in college... That means no fundage.

It will be interesting to see how much of a power/performance gain there actually is, I do admit you did a nice job on the installation, looks very nice!

As for that cone filter (yes, I am opposed to them) the problem with them is that they do not filter out the fine silicates in the air, which is actually space dust (not kidding), have an oil analysis done using a stock setup and then with a cone filter, and you'll see that it does indeed make the silicon particle count jump, another member here checked on this and found it to be true, I just don't remember who it was. Silicon wears away the cylinder walls and rings in the engine. Long term effects would be lessened life span of engine.

Learn something new everyday. :book: maybe by lowering my intake gas temps with the intercooler it will increase my engines life span by as much as the space dust is decreasing the life span. :silly:

thanks for the replys guys, if you didnt notice i cut out the sheet metal below the intercooler, and i was already planning a hood vent. im a body man so im comfortable with the task.

Post pics once you get the body work done! :yes:

btw this car is listed in the mall still.

I think the whole goal behind intercooling is to lower the fuel/air temp so it is more dense. You may have to have the injection pump adjusted to feed more fuel during boost and getting cool air on it via a scoop/duct system will let the IC do it's job.

But without exhaust gas temperature and boost gauges you have no way of tuning your engine to take advantage of the intercooler. With the gauges you can note current EGT and boost pressure after a spirited drive. Remember that with the intercooler online the EGT may already be somewhat lowered. Now get the intercooler in a stream of cool air and start increasing boost pressure until you reach the non intercooled EGT. Obviously you know that increasing boost increases power and reduces economy. Maybe do a search for EGT gauge and you can get some good temps. as reference from people who have already done this.

i have a Manual boost controller and a am installing a boost gauge soon. but its been said that on a diesel, cranking up the boost is unless without more fuel too. any idea how true this is? wouldnt being intercooled give me some leave way for a couple pounds of boost? the EGT should be lower so more boost shouldnt cause preignition or ping? Im somewhat new to diesels so i dont know much about it. but have built some fast high boost gas power cars.

Diesels don't ping because they don't compress fuel/air mixtures in the cylinder. They run excess air, so you WILL NOT get more power from just turning up the boost. Completely different from a gasser -- I have one of those too.